Yesterday, Saturday, I took upon myself a string of negative events which i believe was brought about by my logical and stubborn side.

I had called Italianni’s restaurant to make dinner reservations for my family. Their response was that they do not make reservations during the weekend. I found this very silly since the reason why you would want to make a reservation is for you to be assured of seating. You would do this when you know that the day you want to eat at a place would be busy, like a Saturday! I called them back and gave them my thoughts about it. And then it began…

…. only three of eight members of my thesis group arrived to meet me. As a teacher, this gets me quite upset despite valid reasons given.

… the key to the classroom assigned to me was not available for my class. I had to settle for another classroom. I had already envisioned how to set up the classroom for the specific activity scheduled!

… i was made to realize that I had not e-mailed the materials to the entire class (of eight?!)

… had a miscommunication with my family as to our dinner get-together!

All throughout these events though, I was quite aware of that negative energy and most especially, that I took it upon myself. I decided to just temper myself and try to shift towards a less negative perspective and action such as — forgiving the student for being late for the meeting; making the most of the available classroom for us; and enjoy the discussions brought up in class!

I was quite surprised of this acute awareness that I had and the deliberate actions I was taking to protect myself from the negative energy. And most importantly, I learned a lesson…”Think twice before acting on an issue!”

It’s been quite sometime since I have written. My life was on 5th gear and didn’t have time to slow down. It took a lot of control for me not to blog despite many good reasons to. I made work a priority (and rightly so!), had two new lectures/class at the graduate level and a poster presentation for the undergraduate students.

Aside from being grounded in the practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga, John Scott is charismatic and inspiring. He shared with us, or rather, what I took home from the weekend workshop were the following:

1. Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is described by Guruji as a “counted method”. Counting the vinyasas throughout the practice allows you to get rid of other thoughts (vrittis–I’m not sure if this is the word he used). Counting makes you focus on the count and not on other “issues” of an asana. Counting becomes meditative.

2. Transitions are infantile movements! This was significant to me because I work closely with infants and toddlers with movement problems. On hands and knees (quadruped), sitting on one-sitbone (side sitting); these are asanas (static positions) I usually require my patients to achieve because it will allow movement and mobility.

3. Cat and dog…positioning the spine in either a cat (curved spine) or a dog (extended spine) allows you to access jaladhara banda, which I was not always aware of, and engage it with the asana.

4. Sharing yoga. John Scott mentioned that yoga becomes spiritual when it is shared. When you share yoga, you empty yourself; ready once more to be filled up with more learnings. These words inspired me to pursue a teacher training course, when the timing is right. Someday…

I don’t have my notebook with me now. I’m sure I jotted down a lot more. But these are what I remember. I was not able to join the Mysore sessions, I am sure that would have been a blast. Someday, I will have the privilege to practice under his watchful eyes. A dream for now.